When I was in high school during the cold war, the surceilance society that
existed in the soviet union was given as an example that the soviet system was
flawed and repressive. Now, in the U.S. it is far worse so far as lack of
privacy than it ever was in Russia. I don't want to get over the fact that I
have no control over my personal data anymore. I want some of the privacy that I
have lost back. The government and businesses that are stealing my privacy,
recognize the importance of privacy, as they demand it for themselves while
taking it from me at the same time. My supermarket has a sign on the front door
stating that unauthorized photography inside the store is prohibited. Walking
through that same door, you are confronted by an overhead tv monitor with your
image on it making it very plain that they feel that it is within their rights
to photograph you. Don't steal from me what you reserve for yourself. What we
need is a personal data bill of rights. Here are a few amendments to start:
1) No selling of my personal data to third parties without my consent.
2) No mining of public data that people are required to give to government
(motor vehicle, voter registration, tax records, etc.) for the sake of
marketing.
3) I am allowed access to any data you have about me in order to correct any
errors.
4) No allowing cheaper prices for necessities such as food if one uses a
"loyalty card". In other words, everyone gets the same price. It is a necessity.
I need it to live The arrogance of the "loyalty card" to get a better price
angers me in the extreme. The well-to-do customers can chose to pay more and
keep their privacy, while the poor pretty much feel compelled to use the cards
out of pure economics.
5) Data about me that a business has aquired remains mine. It does not become
theirs because they gathered it. I retain the right to have it removed should I
so desire.
6) This list is not exhaustive. Fell free to add your own amendments.
I wonder if there is a period for questions and answers during this "lesson". The first
question I would ask is, "If ownership of intellectual property is as important as you,
the film and record indusrty are telling me, Why not allow the creating artists (song
writters, screen play writters, musicans) retain copyright ownership, and allow the
record companies to collect royalties rather than the other way around which is the usual
scheme?"
These popup ads can float around the internet cloud all day long, but when they come onto my computer in my house it is exactly like a dog crapping on my lawn, and I have to clean it up. Your dog craps on my lawn, and I'm going to complain to you about it. I don't mind viewing ads on a website I visit, they help pay the freight for the content I am enjoying, but sending ads out using the Windows Messenger thing is, in my opinion, unethical. I guess if I drove up to the lawyer's house with the biggest subwoofers money can buy and sat there blasting the most vile obsenity laden crap I could find for an hour or two, it would just be an annoyance he would have to live with in a free society, or do you think he might call the cops?
The major networks only will be airing "Highlights" of the upcoming political conventions in the US. Guess whether a 15 year old gymnast falls off the balance beam is more important. American students suck at science, but they can sure bounce a ball and throw it through a hoop. Long live the cult of Sport.
I'm reading this on an openBSD system now. This is also the first time I managed to get on the internet using this system. I don't have much documentation other than the man pages. I'm hedging my bets a little on the whole SCO thing. I love linux, but if I must use BSD because of SCO, so be it. I am in general, pleased with the system, but I know my way around linux much better. The openBSD is on a dual boot machine, with the other os being Slackware. The OpenBSD install was somewhat of a stressful thing, as I didn't want to screw up the Slackware, and the install was a good bit different than a linux install.
From the article:
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group based in Los Angeles, said one strategy is for Internet service providers in the United States to honor anti-racism language in their own contracts.
Someone else seeing something that is unconstitutional(squelching free speech) and figuring a way to gain the same effect by some back door(contract with ISP forbids hate speech). Most people in the US would welcome less hate speech in all areas, but the wise ones would rather see the hate speech allowed than have government censorship. Censorship by ISP is totally unacceptable. It is more necessary than ever to clarify the whole ISP as common carrier, not responsible for web content. The web contains content from the profane to the sublime, and that is as it should be. It then becomes a measure of our own souls when we look back at what we have chosen to read and take to heart.
Spy ware is nothing but legal virusus in my book. Some legal mumbo-jumbo in a EULA saying that I agree to allow you to install third party crap that does god knows what is just unethical and should be illegal. The fact that most of this stuff then ferments to a greater level of scum by spying on me etc. just adds to the insult. NOONE would knowingly agree to ANY of the things, if the EULA were actually truthful about all the effects of clicking on the "I Agree" button. The social engineering done by the lawyers in these EULAs is no differrent then the social enginneering in an email getting someone to open an attachment. The results, in my book are the same. Now I've got a virus on my machine. Both should be equally illegal.
I was going to comment about cars with huge subwoofers going down my street, but you beat me to the punch. I would love to have 5 or 10 concords going over my house rather than what I've got now.
I don't use the corporate product of pro sports, but here in Pennsylvania, I get to help pay for it (the statiums) with my tax dollars whether I want to or not. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh both are getting new statiums thanks to myself and other Pa. taxpayers. I'll never watch or go to any games. I just get to pay for the statiums. Not to be left out, many smaller Pa. cities want their piece of the pie. (Lancaster county is getting some state funds to pay for a new Baseball park. The state funds are not enough, of course, so the county floats a bond for more money. Lancaster county residents get to pay for the state funds, and for the county bonds, and guess what? The state has raised the percentage of the income tax. There is a budget shortfall. All this for something I will never use. P.S. do not bother with the sport teams create jobs thing. With this amount of money, any person with normal intelligence should be able to come up with several plans to create several times the jobs that all of these statiums combined provide.
Most people who take the time to learn at the level of "I can fly a commercial jetliner" realize that there isn"t much of a point to crashing one into a building on purpose. Opps, I guess this is not always the case.
Time was, a man's word was a sacred trust, and to call a man a liar was a serious charge not to be uttered lightly. Now everyone is assumed to be lying, and we must ferret out the liars wearing some quasi-scientific glasses. The first person wearing one of these and asking me a question will be in no doubt about my sincerity when I tell him to bite me. How many humanity killing mind numbing gauntlets can I take! I'm getting close to my limit.
I had invented a time machine, but before I used it, someone from the future appeared in my room and told me to destroy the machine, or if I did not, I would severely screw up the future. I had just gone down to the basement to get the sledge hammer after the guy disappeared when another guy from the future showed up saying I shouldn't believe the first guy. The second guy says that if I destroy the machine, the future will go down a very dark path. What should I do?
P.S. Please hurry, as I am really itching to push the start button.
This is something that I always stressed. If the record companies really believed in Intellectual Property, they would allow artists to retain rights to their music and would be satisfied themselves with royalties for marketing and promoting the music. All this sounds reasonable. The music must be good, however, if this model is to replace the current flawed model where artist and consumer gets screwed so record companies can maximize profits.
I seem to recall something about not even the king may enter one's home without being invited to enter. Last I heard, I could walk away from speech that I found offensive. By signing up for DNC that's what I'm doing, walking away. I've been on the Pa. DNC for over a year. One night I got a prerecorded sales call. I'm champing at the bit for them to mention their company name or an 800 number I could call so I could write it down and complain on the state DNC web site to get them fined. neither was given, and at the end, it told me to give my name and phone number if I was interested. They got to call me, and got me to listen to their whole message without giving any information to me that could get them fined. It was a recorded message, and my guess is they got my number from the DNC list. The anger I felt at the end of that call was enormous. I hate those people more than ever, and now I really owe them one. Also, I got a call from Comcast with an offer. As I already get cable from them, they are allowed to call me under Pa. rules. The only thing is, Comcast contracts this out to a telemarketing company. The telemarketing company must have the DNC list, yet they felt compelled to call me in Comcast's name anyway. The next telemarketer that messes with me? It won't be pretty.
Yours is the first post that somewhat mirrored my thoughts on the "Open Letter". The idea that people might sometimes create something without any profit motive is apparently outside the realm of possibillity to Darl. How sad for him.
They are pumping out "music" filled with sex, bad language, violence, and gang glorification MARKETTED TO CHILDREN, and they are saying P2P must be stopped. What hypocracy!
This is not bail. This is not a fine. This is not "cruel and unusual" punishment. It is a claim of civil damages. $150,000 may or may not be excessive, but I don't think any of this violates the eighth amendment. Indeed, if I am the songwriter, and I get $1 royalty per sale, and if you allow my song as a fileshare, and 150,000 people get my music from you for nothing, civilly, I probably have a good case against you that you owe me $150,000.
Part of the charm of the internet has always been its lack of regulation. It has been the last frontier that we can still explore. There were parts of it that should have been labelled on the map, "Here be monsters and sea serpents". Now, it is becoming like the cow town where the railroad now reaches, and the women have arrived, and they want to civilize the place. They want to hire a sheriff and close down the saloons. They want a dry goods store and a bank. The mountainmen and adventurers who first came are no longer welcome, and they will leave by their own choice, as this safe, homogeneous town is no longer interesting. The bad thing is, where will they go? Government regulation will be the death of innovation and the publishing of unpopular or non mainstream ideas. Sure, your IM program will be declared "safe" by the government. Nothing bad can happen, but your "smileys" don't interest me, and I will be leaving then, looking for another map with an area where there just may be sea serpents.
Very funny. Funnier really than the Nigerian bit. I really like the Dr. Evil plots out of sync with present times bits in the movies, and yours should be in the next Austin Powers film.
You are right on the money on this. I've regretted
many things, but I've never regretted taking the high road. You may appear to be foolish momentarily,
but over the long haul, you are recognized as having integrity, and having better things to do with your time than indulging in petty vindictivness.
I have been complaining about supermarkets etc. collecting data linked to us for quite a while now, and nobody cares. Indeed, they love the supermarket cards. Once when the clerk asked me if I had their store card, I said no, and if I had my way, they would be illegal, as they extorted data from me just so I could buy the very food that kept me alive. He just looked at me and laughed. I asked if anyone else had ever expressed these sentiments. He said that I was the first.
Slashdot Mirror
When I was in high school during the cold war, the surceilance society that existed in the soviet union was given as an example that the soviet system was flawed and repressive. Now, in the U.S. it is far worse so far as lack of privacy than it ever was in Russia. I don't want to get over the fact that I have no control over my personal data anymore. I want some of the privacy that I have lost back. The government and businesses that are stealing my privacy, recognize the importance of privacy, as they demand it for themselves while taking it from me at the same time. My supermarket has a sign on the front door stating that unauthorized photography inside the store is prohibited. Walking through that same door, you are confronted by an overhead tv monitor with your image on it making it very plain that they feel that it is within their rights to photograph you. Don't steal from me what you reserve for yourself. What we need is a personal data bill of rights. Here are a few amendments to start:
1) No selling of my personal data to third parties without my consent.
2) No mining of public data that people are required to give to government
(motor vehicle, voter registration, tax records, etc.) for the sake of marketing.
3) I am allowed access to any data you have about me in order to correct any errors.
4) No allowing cheaper prices for necessities such as food if one uses a "loyalty card". In other words, everyone gets the same price. It is a necessity. I need it to live The arrogance of the "loyalty card" to get a better price angers me in the extreme. The well-to-do customers can chose to pay more and keep their privacy, while the poor pretty much feel compelled to use the cards out of pure economics.
5) Data about me that a business has aquired remains mine. It does not become theirs because they gathered it. I retain the right to have it removed should I so desire.
6) This list is not exhaustive. Fell free to add your own amendments.
I wonder if there is a period for questions and answers during this "lesson". The first question I would ask is, "If ownership of intellectual property is as important as you, the film and record indusrty are telling me, Why not allow the creating artists (song writters, screen play writters, musicans) retain copyright ownership, and allow the record companies to collect royalties rather than the other way around which is the usual scheme?"
Well stated. Now let's hope that justice is served. Penquin books should be taught the lesson that I want it doesn't mean I get it.
These popup ads can float around the internet cloud all day long, but when they come onto my computer in my house it is exactly like a dog crapping on my lawn, and I have to clean it up. Your dog craps on my lawn, and I'm going to complain to you about it. I don't mind viewing ads on a website I visit, they help pay the freight for the content I am enjoying, but sending ads out using the Windows Messenger thing is, in my opinion, unethical. I guess if I drove up to the lawyer's house with the biggest subwoofers money can buy and sat there blasting the most vile obsenity laden crap I could find for an hour or two, it would just be an annoyance he would have to live with in a free society, or do you think he might call the cops?
Well said. Good examples. Don't forget the collorary, "He must have done something, or they wouldn't have arrested him."
The major networks only will be airing "Highlights" of the upcoming political conventions in the US. Guess whether a 15 year old gymnast falls off the balance beam is more important. American students suck at science, but they can sure bounce a ball and throw it through a hoop. Long live the cult of Sport.
I'm reading this on an openBSD system now. This is also the first time I managed to get on the internet using this system. I don't have much documentation other than the man pages. I'm hedging my bets a little on the whole SCO thing. I love linux, but if I must use BSD because of SCO, so be it. I am in general, pleased with the system, but I know my way around linux much better. The openBSD is on a dual boot machine, with the other os being Slackware. The OpenBSD install was somewhat of a stressful thing, as I didn't want to screw up the Slackware, and the install was a good bit different than a linux install.
From the article:
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group based in Los Angeles, said one strategy is for Internet service providers in the United States to honor anti-racism language in their own contracts.
Someone else seeing something that is unconstitutional(squelching free speech) and figuring a way to gain the same effect by some back door(contract with ISP forbids hate speech). Most people in the US would welcome less hate speech in all areas, but the wise ones would rather see the hate speech allowed than have government censorship. Censorship by ISP is totally unacceptable. It is more necessary than ever to clarify the whole ISP as common carrier, not responsible for web content. The web contains content from the profane to the sublime, and that is as it should be. It then becomes a measure of our own souls when we look back at what we have chosen to read and take to heart.
Spy ware is nothing but legal virusus in my book. Some legal mumbo-jumbo in a EULA saying that I agree to allow you to install third party crap that does god knows what is just unethical and should be illegal. The fact that most of this stuff then ferments to a greater level of scum by spying on me etc. just adds to the insult. NOONE would knowingly agree to ANY of the things, if the EULA were actually truthful about all the effects of clicking on the "I Agree" button. The social engineering done by the lawyers in these EULAs is no differrent then the social enginneering in an email getting someone to open an attachment. The results, in my book are the same. Now I've got a virus on my machine. Both should be equally illegal.
I was going to comment about cars with huge subwoofers going down my street, but you beat me to the punch. I would love to have 5 or 10 concords going over my house rather than what I've got now.
Well written. I also would like to see the justice system be just, swift, and not abusive to the innocent.
I don't use the corporate product of pro sports, but here in Pennsylvania, I get to help pay for it (the statiums) with my tax dollars whether I want to or not. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh both are getting new statiums thanks to myself and other Pa. taxpayers. I'll never watch or go to any games. I just get to pay for the statiums. Not to be left out, many smaller Pa. cities want their piece of the pie. (Lancaster county is getting some state funds to pay for a new Baseball park. The state funds are not enough, of course, so the county floats a bond for more money. Lancaster county residents get to pay for the state funds, and for the county bonds, and guess what? The state has raised the percentage of the income tax. There is a budget shortfall. All this for something I will never use. P.S. do not bother with the sport teams create jobs thing. With this amount of money, any person with normal intelligence should be able to come up with several plans to create several times the jobs that all of these statiums combined provide.
Use crud off the kitchen sponge. The toilet is actually usually cleaner.
Most people who take the time to learn at the level of "I can fly a commercial jetliner" realize that there isn"t much of a point to crashing one into a building on purpose. Opps, I guess this is not always the case.
Time was, a man's word was a sacred trust, and to call a man a liar was a serious charge not to be uttered lightly. Now everyone is assumed to be lying, and we must ferret out the liars wearing some quasi-scientific glasses. The first person wearing one of these and asking me a question will be in no doubt about my sincerity when I tell him to bite me. How many humanity killing mind numbing gauntlets can I take! I'm getting close to my limit.
I had invented a time machine, but before I used it, someone from the future appeared in my room and told me to destroy the machine, or if I did not, I would severely screw up the future. I had just gone down to the basement to get the sledge hammer after the guy disappeared when another guy from the future showed up saying I shouldn't believe the first guy. The second guy says that if I destroy the machine, the future will go down a very dark path. What should I do? P.S. Please hurry, as I am really itching to push the start button.
This is something that I always stressed. If the record companies really believed in Intellectual Property, they would allow artists to retain rights to their music and would be satisfied themselves with royalties for marketing and promoting the music. All this sounds reasonable. The music must be good, however, if this model is to replace the current flawed model where artist and consumer gets screwed so record companies can maximize profits.
I seem to recall something about not even the king may enter one's home without being invited to enter. Last I heard, I could walk away from speech that I found offensive. By signing up for DNC that's what I'm doing, walking away. I've been on the Pa. DNC for over a year. One night I got a prerecorded sales call. I'm champing at the bit for them to mention their company name or an 800 number I could call so I could write it down and complain on the state DNC web site to get them fined. neither was given, and at the end, it told me to give my name and phone number if I was interested. They got to call me, and got me to listen to their whole message without giving any information to me that could get them fined. It was a recorded message, and my guess is they got my number from the DNC list. The anger I felt at the end of that call was enormous. I hate those people more than ever, and now I really owe them one. Also, I got a call from Comcast with an offer. As I already get cable from them, they are allowed to call me under Pa. rules. The only thing is, Comcast contracts this out to a telemarketing company. The telemarketing company must have the DNC list, yet they felt compelled to call me in Comcast's name anyway. The next telemarketer that messes with me? It won't be pretty.
Yours is the first post that somewhat mirrored my thoughts on the "Open Letter". The idea that people might sometimes create something without any profit motive is apparently outside the realm of possibillity to Darl. How sad for him.
They are pumping out "music" filled with sex, bad language, violence, and gang glorification MARKETTED TO CHILDREN, and they are saying P2P must be stopped. What hypocracy!
This is not bail. This is not a fine. This is not "cruel and unusual" punishment. It is a claim of civil damages. $150,000 may or may not be excessive, but I don't think any of this violates the eighth amendment. Indeed, if I am the songwriter, and I get $1 royalty per sale, and if you allow my song as a fileshare, and 150,000 people get my music from you for nothing, civilly, I probably have a good case against you that you owe me $150,000.
Part of the charm of the internet has always been its lack of regulation. It has been the last frontier that we can still explore. There were parts of it that should have been labelled on the map, "Here be monsters and sea serpents". Now, it is becoming like the cow town where the railroad now reaches, and the women have arrived, and they want to civilize the place. They want to hire a sheriff and close down the saloons. They want a dry goods store and a bank. The mountainmen and adventurers who first came are no longer welcome, and they will leave by their own choice, as this safe, homogeneous town is no longer interesting. The bad thing is, where will they go? Government regulation will be the death of innovation and the publishing of unpopular or non mainstream ideas. Sure, your IM program will be declared "safe" by the government. Nothing bad can happen, but your "smileys" don't interest me, and I will be leaving then, looking for another map with an area where there just may be sea serpents.
Very funny. Funnier really than the Nigerian bit. I really like the Dr. Evil plots out of sync with present times bits in the movies, and yours should be in the next Austin Powers film.
You are right on the money on this. I've regretted many things, but I've never regretted taking the high road. You may appear to be foolish momentarily, but over the long haul, you are recognized as having integrity, and having better things to do with your time than indulging in petty vindictivness.
I have been complaining about supermarkets etc. collecting data linked to us for quite a while now, and nobody cares. Indeed, they love the supermarket cards. Once when the clerk asked me if I had their store card, I said no, and if I had my way, they would be illegal, as they extorted data from me just so I could buy the very food that kept me alive. He just looked at me and laughed. I asked if anyone else had ever expressed these sentiments. He said that I was the first.